有机 (yǒu jī) — organic (relating to farming or food grown without artificial chemicals)

Definition

adjective
organic (relating to farming or food grown without artificial chemicals)

Examples

  • 有机。
    Wǒ zuì jìn kāi shǐ mǎi yǒu jī shū cài chī le.
    I recently started buying organic vegetables to eat.
  • 有机。
    Zhè jiā cān tīng zhǐ yòng yǒu jī de miàn fěn.
    This restaurant only uses organic flour.
  • 有机。
    yǒu jī Nóng yè duì huán jìng hěn yǒu hǎo chù.
    Organic farming is very good for the environment.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

有yǒuhave
机jīlife force

有 means 'have' and 机 relates to 'life force'; the term 'organic' is fixed and not built directly from the parts.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
肉肉ròumeat
Sound part声符shēngfú
又
又yòu有yǒu
Same sound today

The form 有 combines 又, used for its sound, with a shape from 肉, 'meat'; the hand-holding-meat story is a folk explanation, not shown in the oldest shape.

Open 有 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
木木mùtree; wood
Sound part声符shēngfú
几
几jǐ机jī
Same sound today

The left part is 木 (tree; wood), and the right part 几 gives the sound.

Open 机 →
Appears in
HSK 3.0 Level 6Agriculture & FarmingFood (General)

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